Shadow of The Fox (Shadow of the Fox #1) - Julie Kagawa Page 0,100

to the capital,” the ronin stated, his gaze following the river through the valley. “It’ll be nice to relax, get a halfway decent meal, and then maybe I can convince you to have some fun for a change, Kage-san.” He gave me that defiant grin. “I take it you’ve never played cho-han before?”

Cho-han was a dice game popular in all of Iwagoto’s gambling dens, which were rough, seedy places frequented by bandits, ronin, gang members and crime lords. My missions for the Shadow Clan sometimes took me into the darkest of these underworlds, chasing down demons hiding among killers, but reputable samurai rarely ventured into such places, and those that did never admitted to it.

“No,” I said.

“No, you’ve never played it, or no, I can’t convince you to try?”

“Take your pick.”

“Ah, well. Your loss, samurai.” The ronin shook his head and glanced at Yumeko, sitting peacefully under the ginkgo tree. “Maybe Yumeko-chan would be willing to try her hand at it. She can talk to the kami, right? Could she ask Tamafuku, the God of Luck, to bless my dice for a round or two?”

He was baiting me, and I knew he was baiting me, but anger flickered all the same. I knew what kind of humans filled those gambling halls: predators with hungry eyes and bloodthirsty smiles. The thought of Yumeko surrounded by a circle of human wolves, their ravenous eyes watching her every move, filled me with a cold fury I did not understand.

“Tamafuku?” Sitting in the grass, Yumeko cocked her head, and the cricket that had been perched on her elbow sprang away into the grass. “Well, I could try,” she said. “I’ve never spoken to any of the Great Kami before, just the minor ones. Do you know where we can find Tamafuku so I could talk to him?”

“Well, there is a giant statue of him just inside the gambling hall,” the ronin said.

“Oh? Does he live inside the statue then? Do you think it gets up and moves around when no one is looking? There was a teapot in the Silent Winds temple that did that sometimes, until the day Nitoru kicked it across the room.”

“Never mind.” The ronin sighed. “Forget I said anything.”

With a yawn, the girl rose, stretching both arms over her head. “At least we’re almost to the capital,” she mused, gazing down the valley. “What I’m hoping for is an inn with good food and soft futons. It will be nice to sleep on a bed for a change and not out in the open. Or in a leaky hut. Or in a cave with a very uncomfortable stone floor.” Her dark gaze slid to me, the smile growing wider. “Unlike certain samurai who will remain nameless, most of us cannot fall asleep wherever we want.”

I masked a frown, confused. I could never sleep as she did, stretched out and prone, easy prey for someone to cut off my head or tear me apart. Sleep for me came in snatches, in an upright position with my back to the wall and Kamigoroshi in my lap, ready to be drawn in a blink. Comfort had nothing to do with it.

The ronin pulled his sake jug around to his front. “We’re still a few days out from the capital, if I had to guess,” he remarked, pulling the top off the gourd. “But there should be a couple towns between here and Kin Heigen Toshi. I think Yashigi is just up the river.” He lifted the jug toward his lips, but then gave a yelp and yanked it away from his face. “Kuso!”

My hand dropped to my sword, and Yumeko blinked at him in shock. “What’s wrong, Okame-san?”

“There’s...a...frog...in my sake!” the ronin sputtered, sounding outraged and horrified. He tilted the gourd upside down, shook it twice, and a tiny green creature tumbled into the grass with the rest of the liquid.

Yumeko burst out laughing. Her voice was like tiny birds, and sent a strange prickle over my skin. “Oh, don’t be upset, Okame-san,” she said, as the ronin stared mournfully at the empty jug, as if hoping it would refill. “Frogs are good luck, after all. You must be blessed by the kami.”

“Not from where I’m standing. Unless they’ve decided to bless me with soberness, which they can keep to themselves, thank you very much.”

I glanced at the place the frog had fallen, but could no longer see it in the grass. Only a bright green juniper leaf skipping across the ground, being